Zimbabwe Smaldeel Estate AA

The Captain's Coffee

Availability
Out of stock

Product TypeGreen Coffee

VendorThe Captain's Coffee

Our first coffee from Zimbabwe! This season's crop is bright and crisp with notes of peach, rhubarb and a touch of caramel and lime zest. Arrival Date: August 12th, 2016 Acidity & Brightness: Bright and crisp Balance & Finish: Great...

Our first coffee from Zimbabwe! This season's crop is bright and crisp with notes of peach, rhubarb and a touch of caramel and lime zest.

Arrival Date: August 12th, 2016

Acidity & Brightness:Bright and crisp

Balance & Finish: Great balance, slightly tart finish

Body & Texture:Tea-like body, smooth

Flavors: Notes of peach, rhubarb, caramel and lime zest

Grade:AA - Large Beans, very dense

Processing:Fully washed, hand-picked, sun dried

Varietals:Catimor

Roasting:To really taste the unique origin characteristics of this coffee, we recommend a City + (light-medium) roast, but this coffee will roast well into Full City + (Medium-Dark). Darker roasts will result in less crispness and more caramel and a bit more body. Keep in mind, these huge AA beans may require a slightly smaller batch size than normal in order to allow for proper and consistent air flow within your roaster.

Recommendation: This is a pretty different and unique coffee; bright, crisp and slightly tart. For folks who really appreciate trying all the flavors of the coffee rainbow! Great for an afternoon pick-me-up or an iced coffee with lunch.

Our Review: Zimbabwe isn't a country commonly known for exporting fine coffee, but we were surprised to learn that the Smaldeel Estate has been around for over 100 years. Named by early European settlers in the region, "Smaldeel" is a Dutch word meaning "the narrow portion." The estate is located on the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and the area's cool, wet climate, paired with high altitudes, makes the estate ideal for production of high quality coffee. One of the great things we support about this coffee (besides just how great it tastes) is that the Smaldeel Estate owners prioritize providing proper housing and a health clinic for all it's employees.

You may be surprised to find this is the first coffee from Zimbabwe TCC has ever offered! This being the case, we were very excited to cup it and decided to roast it at several levels to really get a good picture of everything this amazing coffee has to offer. As we expected, our City+ Roast exhibited the most unique and origin specific characteristics. We really enjoyed the strong notes of green apple and raisin in the aroma and these flavors carried over in the cup, along with a touch of caramel and lemon zest. The body is light to medium, almost tea-like. The finish was slightly tart, without being sour; think the crisp bite of a green apple. In darker roasts, the crispness and green apple flavor faded to more pronounced caramel and dark chocolate, with the body becoming a bit more substantial as well. All in all, we found this coffee to be delicious and different, a refreshing change! Also be aware this is a grade AA African coffee, meaning the beans are BIG! We had our most consistent roasting results with very slightly smaller batch loads than usual.

Reminder: This coffee is raw. You have to roast it before brewing.

Returns Policy

If you are unsatisfied with your green coffee purchase, we will issue you a refund in the form of an in-store credit. Since coffee is a food item, we can't take it back once it leaves our control. We will work closely with you to insure you get the quality you expected at a price that is fair. This offer is good for 30 days from the date of shipment.
We will faithfully adhere to this policy for every customer, unless that customer is repeatedly abusing it. We withold the right to deny refunds, in rare cases, where a customer is repeatedly ordering coffee and then asking for a refund.

Home Coffee Roasters

The Gene Cafe and Behmor 1600 Plus are covered by a 1 year warranty from the manufacturer. The Fresh Roast SR-300 and SR-500 come with a 1 year warranty on the base unit and a 6 month warranty on the chaff collector, top cap and basket. Since the roasters are UL certified, the manufacturers ask that we refer all warranty issues directly to them. Although we do not directly provide repair service, we'll help you through the process to get your roaster back up and running. Should you return an unused roaster to us, we will refund your purchase minus the original shipping cost. Once you've used your roaster, we really can't take it back.

Other Items

Any item not covered by a manufacturer's warranty is warranted by The Captain's Coffee to meet or exceed your expectations. If you are dissatisfied with your purchase for any reason, you may return the item to The Captain's Coffee for a replacement or refund in the form of an in-store credit. This offer is good for 30 days from the date of shipment. If applicable, the manufacturer's warranty will supersede this warranty for items sold by The Captain's Coffee.

Shipping

We currently ship to any location in the US with the notable exception that Note that Hawaii Department of Agriculture regulations won't allow us to ship raw coffee to Hawaii.

If you select the "Captain's Special" shipping method, please note that the choice of carrier and delivery method is then entirely at our discretion. For local pick-ups, please allow 24 hours for us to prepare your order before dropping by to pick it up. Shipping weight is calculated in US Pounds.